*H& A LETTER 

r FROM 

GOVERNOR REEDER 

OK 

The Approaching Election of President and the Candidates. 



New Yokk City, September 18, 185(5. 
Tu the Editors of the Evening Post : 

Gentlemen : The letter of your correspondent 
II . , and your editorial comments upon it of the 
10th inst. seem in common courtesy to demand a re- 
pl y. Your correspondent does not err in saying that 
1 desire the success of the Republican party and the 
election of their candidate, and that I am ready to 
contribute any honorable effort to bring it about. 
This is not the result of any preference as to men, 
but in spite of it. With Colonel Fremont I am 
unacquainted. I have never seen him, nor had 
any communication with him, direct or indirect, 
verbal or written. On the other hand, my feel- 
ings of friendship and admiration for Mr. Bu- 
chanan, as a man, are of no ordinary character, 
and are strengthened by years of friendly intimacy 
and reciprocal acts of kindness, uninterrupted 
to this time by a single misunderstanding or un- 
pleasant" feeling ; and I would at any time de- 
fend him promptly and indignantly against per- 
sonal attacks upon his reputation. I believe him 
to be a man of distinguished ability, of high 
integrity and valuable experience. He is sur- 
rounded, too, in Pennsylvania, by many political 
friends, whom personally I love and esteem, and 
to whom I am united by ties of long-cherished 
political and social intimacy, and the loss of whose 
friendship I should regard as a great calamity. 
For more than a quarter of a century I have 
steadily labored with the Democratic party, and 
never doubted that I should do so during my life. 
For years I have exerted myself to bring about 
Mr. Buchanan's nomination. In 1848 and 1852, 
I was one of those who carried for him the dele- 
gates of our district, and was his zealous and 
ardent supporter. On each occasion I was in the 
National Convention as one of his delegates. 

These ties are exceedingly strong and hard to 
sever, especially with one who is naturally of a 
conservative cast, and slow to change old habits 
of thought and action ; and I have resisted for 
months the convictions that were urging me to 
my present declaration. I have diligently sought 
reasons and arguments to save myself the pain of 
v breaking up old associations and alienating myself 



from my old friends, but all in vain. My love of 
country and hatred of oppression would not allow 
my feelings and inclinations either to delude my 
judgment, or still my conscience, and I am com- 
pelled to forfeit my self-respect by committing 
what I believe to be palpably wrong, or else to 
enrol myself in opposition to the Democratic 
party. 

I can see no reasonable hope of justice and sym- 
pathy for the people of Kansas in the success of 
the Democracy. In its ranks, and with the power 
to control its action, are found the border-ruffians 
of Misssoiiri and their accomplices of the South, 
who have trampled upon the constitution and all 
the essential principles of our government, robbed 
Kansas of its civil liberty and right of suffrage, 
laid waste its territory with fire and sword, and 
repudiated even civilization itself. 

In its platform I find the enunciation of princi- 
ples which would put the rope about the necks of 
men for exercising the constitutional right of 
petitioning Congress for a State government, as a 
redness of grievances far worse than those which 
led to the war of the Ke volution, and a declaration 
stigmatising as ' ' armed resistance to law' ' the 
moderate and justifiable self-defence of men 
shamefully and infamously oppressed by ruffian 
violence and outrage, beyond all human en- 
durance. 

I find the whole party of the nation assembled 
in National Convention, with but one individual 
dissent, expressing its "unqualified admiration" 
of an administration which has lent itself as the 
tool and accomplice of all the wrongs inflicted 
upon Kansas, and by its venality and imbecility 
brought the country to an intestine war. 

I find, all its representatives in Congress, with 
three individual exceptions, laboring in earnest 
zeal, by speech and vote, to cover up the iniquities 
of this administration and the border ruffians of 
Missouri, and to suppress a fair investigation of 
outrages which shock both humanity and repub- 
licanism, and defy the constitution and the laws. 

I find these same representatives, after the truth 
was elicited in spite of their efforts, still refusing 
to relieve the people from a code of laws imposed 



GOVERNOR REEPER ON THE APPROACHING ELECTION. 



upon them by :i foreign army, ami still refusing 
to admit them into the Union, only !'"r reasons 
which, in t tates, nad 

■ ami i<i ii" aooount. 
I find then) disregarding a free constitution 
adopted in a li gal, constitutional and time-sane- 
: manner, (and which no man can doubt to 
reflected the will of the people,) and sup- 
porting a law to produce a substitute, which it is 
• show would have perpetuated in the state 

:!;:• hi the usurpation which had by force 

alread; upon the government of the 

territory. 

t" in kke appropriations for 
thai army is to he used to enforce 
a code of laws violative, on their face, of the con- 
stitution, enacted by a legislature in violation of 
the law of the United States, and imposed by 
foreign force conquered and subjugated American 
citizens. 

I fin in a word, steadily aiding by all 

their Congressional action to make a Slave State 
in Northern latitudes, and that, too, against the 
will of its inhabitants. 

I find that one member who more than any 
other stood out against the enslavement of his 
fellow-citizens, is refused are-nomination by 
the D< mocratie party of his district. 

d in the canvass now going on that the 
whole tone of their party press is in the same 
direction. When the first startling intelligence of 

the outrages in I ched the States, their 

: iuni i d tie- foul wrong in tej 
fitting indignation. It was buta spasmodic effort, 

ad in deference to the South and the 

ing sentiment of the party, they have 
dropp ifter tbe other, until now, so far as 

l n able to ascertain, there is not a demo- 
paper which dares boldh to justify and 
party, and denounce their 
Invaders. In pi couragement and syxa- 

. for their outraged fellow-citizens from the 
, there is little else than jeers and ridicule 
for their oppressed and Buffering condition mi-.. 
moti ■ and conduct, and 
i incredulity of the statements ami 
: ■ their brethren of the 

exhibiting the same spirit 
the question entirely ; 
.. ith perversions, mis- 
ind others I 

■ - ; hut no o 

i . . 

■ I' i tie- Free B1 ite < lonstitution 

In the public demoi I ions of 

rty, I find banners and devices containing 

brutal Insults, in to the appeals of that 

! unparallel. ,| w 



calculated, as no doubt they must be intended, to 
prepare the masses for a continued refusal of 
justice and protectii a, and a relentless persistence 
■ rage and oppression. 
I find all the South, and a portion 

of the Democracy of the North, boldly repudiating 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, by insisting that Slavery 
has a right to go* into the territories, in spite of 
Congress Or the people ; and that the inhabitants 
of the territory have no right to pass territorial 

laws to forbid it or exclude it. Democratic repre- 
I ives from Pennsylvania, even, in the Senate, 
and the House, hold and proclaim these opinions, 
whilst other representatives from Pennsylvania, 
with Demoi rs from other States, declare 

themselves publicly to be non-committal upon 
this heresy ; the inevitable tendency of which, it 
is easy to show, will be to prevent almost entirely 
tie- form itiOn of any more Free States.' 

Having originated a movement myself to aid 
our people by sending them men and money, 
and having prosecuted it with the strictest avoid- 
ance of party character, and a studied neutrality 
as to the political canvass, and having earnestly 
asked the co-operation of men of all parties, 1 have 
failed to enlist in it, to my knowledge, a single 
Democrat. In the conventions of Cleveland and 
Buffalo, called without distinction of party, in 
furtherance of this enterprise, there was no Demo- 
crat present but myself. This cannot have been 
from any want of generosity or of means, but 
only in deference to the prevailing tone and senti- 
ment of the party, which is enlisted upon the 
other side of the question. And not only have 
they abstained from aiding the movement, but in 
their presses and by their private influence they 
have endeavored to cripple and retard it by sneer- 
ing at it, warning the community against it as 
treasonable, and declaring that the money would 
be misapplied, thus endeavoring to prevent con- 
tributions even from friends of the measure. 

I might go on with this catalogue and enumerate 
Other indications, if necessary, Bhowing that the 
prevailing tone of the party is hostile to Kansas ; 
but I consider it only necessary to add. that what 
1 have said rels North. The South, 

where the great mass of (he party is to be found, 
male e no pretension, as a whole, to the advocacy 
of anything hut pure border-ruffianism. 

What, then, have the free State men of Kansas 
cratic administration', e\ en 
if presided over by .Mr. Buchanan? If he could 
be hit to -et upon his own impulses, unaffected 
by external influences, and free from all pledges 
and obligations, express ami implied, the 

would I"- \ei\ different. Hut, unfortunately, this 
is not so. His election would rightfully be con- 
sidered a decision against us, whatever may he his 
own private feel in -■.-;. I lis offices at Washington, 
in Kansas and elsewhere would necessarily, to a 
idled with our enemies. His 
iuld come through a distorted 
medium ; and lastly, he could not aid us without 
having first ma is mind to lie aban- 

doned and warred upon by his own party. The 
Bouth would charge him with violating his pledges, 

and turn upon him with the bitterest hosti'itv 
and at Least a portion of tin- Northern Hem.- 



hJxrr ,f i.n(r* i > 
Weet. Eee.HJat.8oc. 



GOVERNOR REEDER ON THE APPROACHING ELECTION. 



would follow their example. He would thus be 
left without a party to support his administration, 
unless he should cast himself into the arms of the 
Republicans. We cannot, it seems to me, either 
ask or expect him to do this upon a question where 
pai ty lines are so plainly drawn before his election. 
Like all other men in the same situation, he must 
obey the party sentiment on which he is elected. 
That there are Democrats in Pennsylvania who 
are full of indignation against the conduct of the 
South in regard to Kansas, I am wfll aware, and 
that they would use their influence to redress her 
wrongs, I am well satisfied ; but they are too few 
in proportion to the whole party of the Union to 
sustain his administration in a war with his party. 
They have as yet been unable to make their 
opinions appear and be felt in the party, and, of 



course, cannot do so hereafter. I honor their 
good intentions, but I cannot believe in their 
power. 

I repeat that I have been forced to these con- 
clusions after no slight struggle with my feelings 
and inclinations. Should Mr. Buchanan be elected, 
and his administration be different from what my 
judgment compels me to believe, I shall give it 
my cordial approbation, and my feeble though 
willing support. As I believe now, I must regard 
the Democratic party as fully committed to 
Southern sectionalism, towards which, for some 
time past, it has been rapidly tending, and I quit 
it, well assured that my duty to my country de- 
mands at my hands the sacrifice of personal 
feeling. Very truly yours, 

A. H. Reeder. 



SECRETARY MARCY'S OPINION 



[Extract from the Annual Report of the Secretary of War, December 5, 1846.] 



War Department. Dec. 5, 1846. 
a • s a « « « 

In May, 1845, John C. Fremont, then a brevet 
captain in the corps of Topographical Engineers, 
and since appointed a lieutenant colonel, left here 
under orders from this Department to pursue his 
explorations in the regions beyond the Rocky 
Mountains. The objects of this service were, as 
those of his previous explorations had been, of a 
scientific character, without any view whatever to 
military operations. Not an officer or soldier of 
the United States army accompanied him ; and 
his whole force consisted of sixty-two men, 'em- 
ployed by himself for security against the Indians, 
and for procuring subsistence in the wilderness 
and desert country through which he was to pass. 

One of the objects he had in view was to discov- 
er a new and shorter route from the western base 
of the Rocky Mountains to the north of the Colum- 
bia River. This search, fir a part of the distance, 
would carry him through the unsettled, and after- 
ward through a corner of the settled parts of Cal- 
ifornia. He approached these settlements in the 
winter of 1845-'6. Aware of the critical state of 
affairs between the United States and Mexico, and 
determined to give no cause of offence to the 
authorities of the province, with commendable 
prudence he halted his command on the frontier, 
one hundred miles from Monterey, and proceded 
alone to that city to explain the object of his com- 
ing to the commandant general, Castro, and to 
obtain permission to go into the valley of San 
Joaquin, where there was game for his men and 
grass for his horses, and no inhabitants to be mo- 
lested by his presence. The leave was granted ; 
but scarcely had he reached the desired spot for 
refreshment and repose, before he received infor- 
mation from the American settlements, and by 
expresses from our Consul at Monterey, that Gen- 
eral Castro was preparing to attack him with a 
comparatively large force of artillery, cavalry and 
' ' pretext that under the cover of 



a scientific mission he was exciting the American 
settlers to revolt. In view of this danger, and to 
be in a condition to repel an attack, he then took 
a position on a mountain overlooking Monterey, 
at a distance of about thirty miles, entrenched it, 
raised the flag of the United States, and with his 
own men, sixty-two in number, awaited the ap- 
proach of the commandant general. 

From the 7th to the 10th of March, Colonel 
Fremont and his little band maintained this posi- 
tion. General Castro did not approach within at- 
tacking distance, and Colonel Fremont, adhering 
to his plan of avoiding all collisions, and deter- 
mined neither to compromit his government nor 
the American settlers, ready to join him at all haz- 
ards, if he had been attacked, abandoned his posi- 
tion, and commenced his march for Oregon, intend- 
ing by that route to return to the United States. 
Deeming all danger from the Mexicans to be passed, 
he yielded to the wishes of some of his men who 
desired to remain in the country, discharged them 
from his service, and refused to receive others in 
their stead, so cautious was he to avoid doing any- 
thing which would compromit the American set- 
tlers, or give even a color of offence to the Mexi- 
can authorities. He pursued his march slowly and 
leisurely, as the state of his men and horses re- 
quired, until the middle of may, and had reached 
the northern shore of the greater Tlamath lake, 
within the limits of the Oregon Territory, when 
he found his further progress in that direction ob- 
structed by impassable snowy mountains and hos- 
tile Indians, who had been excited against him 
by General Castro, had killed and wounded four 
of his men, and left him no repose either in camp 
or on his march. At the same time, information 
reached him that General Castro, in addition to 
his Indian allies, was advancing in person against 
him, with artillery and cavalry, at the head of 
four or five hundred men ; that they were passing 
around the head of the bay of San Francisco to a 
rendezvous on the north side of it, and that the 



SECKETAKY MA ROY'S OPDJION OF OOL. FREMONT. 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



American settlers in the vail, v of tile Sacramento 

van oomprehended In the scheme of destruction 
meditated against his own part] , 

■ ■r these circumstances, lit- determined to 
torn upon his Mexican pursuers, and seeksafet] 
both for his own party and the American w ttlers, 
not merely in the defeat of Castro, bul Lntl 
overthrow of the Mexican authority in California, 
and the establishment of an independent 
men! in that extensive department, li 
the 6th of June, and before the commencement of 
the war between the United States and Mexico could 
have there been known, thai this resolution was 
taken ; and. by the 5th of July, ted into 

e'Jtrt if a serial of rapid attack*, by a imaU body of 
under the conduct of an intrepid leader, 
'/uicA- mdabh to direct tht pi 

for accomyUslnmj such a daring 

< »ii the 1 lth of June s convoy of 200 horses for 
> astxo'scamp, with an officer and fourteen men, 
were surprised and captured by twelve of Fre- 
mont's party. On the 16th, at daybreak, thi mi] 
itary post of Sanoma was also surprised and taken, 
with nine brass cannon, 250 stand of muskets and 
several officers, and Borne men and munitions of 
war. 

Leaving :i small garrison at Sanoma, Colonel 
Fremont went to the Sacramento to rouse the 
American settlers; but scarcely bad he arrived 
there when an express reached him from the gar- 
rison at Sanoma, with information that Casti-.'s 
whole force was crossing the hay to attack that 
place. This intelligence was received in the after- 
noon of the 28dof June, while he was on the 
American fork of the Bacramento, 80 miles from 
the little garrison at Sanoma, and at. -l o'clock on 
she morning of the 25th he arrived at that place 
with 90 riflemen from the American settlers in 
that valley. The enemy had not vet appeared. 

- were sent out to reconnoitre, and a party of 

by f-11 in with a squadron of seventy dra- 
goons, (all of Castro\ force which had crossed the 
bay,) attacked and defeated it. killing and wound- 
ing five, without harm to themselves; the Mexi- 
can command.-r. De la Torre, barely escaping, with 
thelos8ofhis transport boats and nine pi 

artillery spiked. 
Tb mtry north of the Bay of Ban Francisco, 

' leared "i the enemy, Colonel Fremont re- 
turned to Sanoma on the evening of the lth of 
July, and on the morning of the 5th called the 
people together, explained to them the condition 
of things in the province, and recommended an 

immediate declaration o|' independence. The de- 
claration was made, and I,- | | ,,, t.ake 
the chief direction of atlaiis. 

Tie- ;,tta. k o,, i asl CO wa- tic- n, ■.. t object, He 

wan at Santa Clara, an entrenched post on the up- 
per or south side of ti. ,, „i,|, 
and two |,i, ... of field art ilh I] \ . A cir- 
cuit of more than a hundred I the Ira 



suit wi 
Semen 

So||, w 

settlen 
he Lear 

and wa 



„ HI II II llll II In "li' 1 

011 898 297 6 



7 the pur- 
>unted ri- 
t in per- 
kmerican 
s. Here 
* ta Clara. 
uad de los 

Angeles, (the City of the Angels,) the seat of the 

Governor Genera] of the Cafifornias, and distant 

■100 miles It was instantly resolved to pursue him 

\t the moment of departure the 

gratifying intelligence was received that war with 
Me\ic. bad commenced : that Monterey had been 
taken bj our naval force, and the Bag of the Uni- 
ted States there raised on the 7th of July; and 
that the licit would co-operate in the pursuit of 

('astro ami his forces. The flag of independence 

was hauled down, and that of the United State- 
hoisted, amidst the hearty greetings and to the 
joy of the American settlers and the force.-, 
under the command of Colonel Fremont. 

The combined pursuit was rapidly continued: 
and on the 12th of August, Commodore Stockton 
and Colonel Fremont, with a detachment of ma- 
rines from the squadron and some riflemen, enter- 
ed the City of the Angels, without resistance or 
objection ; the Governor General, Pico, the Com- 
mandant General, Castro, and all the Mexican au- 
thorities, having fled and dispersed. Commodore 
Stockton took possession of the whole country as 
a conquest of the United States, and appointed 
Colonel Fremont Governor, under the law of na- 
tions ; to assume the functions of that office when 
he should return to the squadron. 

Thus, in the short space of sixty days from tin 
first decisive movement, this conquest was achieved, 
by a small hody of men, to an extent beyond their 
own expectation ; for the Mexican authorities pro- 
claimed it a conquest, not merely of the northern 
part, hut of the whole province of the Californias. 

The Commandant General, Castro, on the 9th of 
August, from his camp at the Mesa, and next day 
'•on the road to Sonora," announced this result to 
the people, toe-ether with the actual Bight and dis- 

persion of the former authorities ; and at the same 

time he officially communicated the fact of the 
conquest to the French, Knglish and Spanish Con- 
Buls in California ; ami, to crown the whole, the 

official paper of the Mexican government, on the 
16th of < Ictober, in laying these official communi- 
cations before the public, introduced them with 

the emphatic declaration, "The loss of the Califor- 
is consummated." The whole province was 

yielded up to the United states, and is now in our 
military occupancy, a small part of the troops 
■ nt out to subject this province will constitute, it. 

lund. B Sufficient force to retain our poseS- 

sion. and the remainder will be disposable for oth- 
er ohj.ects of the war. 

W. L. MATtCY. 
To r, ii. PBasinm oi tbm Dneckd States. 



I bj the Young Men's Fremont and Dnyton Ce Otral Union, of the I it y of New-York. 
campaign Beading Boom, Btuyvt ant Institute, 669 Broadwaj ; open daily from s ,\. M. toll P.M. 
J"i. New-York. 



